


Hail Mary (Sue)

by inbarati



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-15
Updated: 2010-04-15
Packaged: 2017-10-08 23:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/80537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inbarati/pseuds/inbarati





	Hail Mary (Sue)

"Her biological readings are analogous with humans in our universe." Rodney peered from the scanner to the girl asleep in the bed. He grinned. "And she likes cats!" He gestured to the small bundle of black and white fur curled beside her head.

"What if she won't come?" Xander peeked around the side of the bunk bed.

"Pet, have you _looked_ at this place? It's worse than your basement." Spike gestured at the cracked walls and general upheaval of the room they had portalled into. "Besides, I don't think happy people sleep with a calculus book beside their bed. Looks like she has a hard time sleeping."

John shrugged. "Or she's a math geek." Rodney just rolled his eyes. John shot him a look. "Are you absolutely sure this is _not_ a bad idea?"

"Well, if Heinlein created the universe-as-fiction, then he also created its rules." Xander commented. "And he had people from all kinds of universes running roughshod everywhere."

John shot Rodney a sly look. "Well, I hear tell Heinlein was a genius. Maybe he could get away with things we can't."

Rodney shot back a withering glare. "Why do I sleep with you, again?"

"Well, I really don't want to pull her into a universe that's going to disappear the second she steps into it. This isn't ancient tech, McKay, it's worse. It's magic."

"We did come looking for you first so we would muck things up." Xander backed John up, and John favored him with a smile that made Spike growl.

"There's no possible way to verify the outcome, short of resurrecting a dead author, and asking him what the physics of the situation are." Rodney put the scanner away. "We either chance it or we don't." He sat down on the end of the bed.

The movement woke the sleeping girl. "Hi guys," she mumbled sleepily, before doing a double-take and sitting straight up. She stared at them, blinking, and rubbed her eyes. The men did not disappear. "Shit. I have finally actually lost it."

"Don't be stupid." Rodney replied. "You know about the universe-as-fiction. We know you do. We've read your story. Well, as far as it's been written."

"Mmmhmm. And what part of you guys being here would not be delusional wish-fulfillment?" The girl replied in a you're-the-hallucination tone of voice.

Spike picked up the cat, and sat in her place next to the girl. "Well, it's like this. Xander over there read my Heinlein, and got a bug up his arse about you. Wanted to meet you, know why you wrote him, basic searching-for-meaning twitterpating. So we looked on the internet for our story. We found you. Then, oatmeal for brains over there, he used the 'W' word, and we got this thingy." Spike held up a box with some dials on it. "We were trying to decide what it was, I flipped a switch, and we were somewhere else."

"What Spike is failing to tell you is that we ended up on a jungle planet, with giant lizards, like dinosaurs. In the three days it took us to figure out how to get back where we came from, we decided to try and find some scientific help on the subject."

"Which is where I come in." Rodney interrupted.

"Yeah, but it took us awhile to get to you." Xander shot back.

"Yes, yes, but we need to skip forward to the important part, before her roommate comes home." Rodney cut short Xander's story, impatiently. 'We didn't find you first. We found the person who writes your story." Rodney explained. "You're a book, by the way, which is a bit more dignified than fan-fiction-"

"Anyway," John cut in, "we got to read your story. Your author is a bastard. He was going to kill you. So, uh…"

"Flyboy and I _persuaded_ your author to write an ending where we found you, instead." Spike interrupted.

Xander thwapped Spike on the arm. "They didn't hurt him, just scared him."

"Okay…" the girl replied, visibly thinking. She looked around at them. "So what happens next?"

"We were arguing about that when Rodney woke you up." John admitted. "We aren't sure what will happen if we take you back with us."

"But we aren't going to leave you here." Xander glared at John. "If she stays here, she dies. I'm not okay with that for her sake, but have you considered what will happen to us? What if we merge back into the original storyline? I'm sure you're excellent at being a James T. Wannabe, but do you really want to give up Rodney?"

Rodney chuckled. "James T. Wannabe. I'm going to remember that one."

"I. Am. Not. Kirk." John gritted out from between his clenched teeth.

"Um, guys, can you argue later? It's cute and all, but we're kind of deciding my fate here."

"Well, the three of us are agreed," Rodney gestured to Spike and Xander. "John's the only holdout." Rodney crossed his arms and looked at John.

"Hey. You're the physicist, he's the one keeping you safe. Whatever his reservations are, you should listen to him." The girl touched John's arm briefly.

"And they call _you_ the genius." John smirked at Rodney. "Xander had a pretty good argument about the rules of what we're doing, actually." He turned to the girl. "We may all stop existing as soon as you enter our universe. You willing to risk it?"

"Kinda a 'Hail Mary,' yeah?" The girl grinned up at him.

"Exactly like a Hail Mary." John smiled back.


End file.
